Smule Raises $3.9 Million in Venture Capital

Monday February 16, 2009 1:07 pm PST by Eric Slivka

MacDailyNews reports that Smule, creators of the popular iPhone applications Ocarina [App Store] and Zephyr [App Store], have raised $3.9 million in a round of venture capital financing led by Granite Ventures.

Bessemer Venture Partners, the lead investor in Smule's first round, participated in this new round alongside existing investors Jeffrey C. Smith, co-founder and CEO of Smule, and Maples Investments. Smule will use the new funds to enhance its position as a leading developer of innovative applications and services for mobile users.

The $3.9 million round represents one of the largest announced funding events for iPhone-related companies and is particularly impressive given the recent economic downturn.

Previously, the iFund was announced in March 2008 by the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB) as a $100 million fund to support companies developing applications and services for the iPhone and iPod touch. KPCB later announced in September 2008 that they had funded five companies for a total of approximately $30 million.

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Mr. Giver '94

Posted: 43 months ago

Always good to see increased investments/funding for worthy developers. :)

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mkrishnan

Posted: 43 months ago

I think it's a good sign of continued development of an ecosystem around the iPhone. If this continues and the premium games rumor turns out to be correct and/or other actions are taken to onboard more established developers, this all bodes very well for the App Store.

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chr1s60

Posted: 43 months ago

Not only is this good for developers, but Apple is banking a lot of money from these high selling apps. It would be interesting to see the total revenue that has revolved around the app store alone over the past 7 months.

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